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Frets

Acoustic and Electric Guitars

As this is the area that gets most wear, especially with metal strings wearing against metal frets, it is probably the part of the guitar that requires fairly high maintenance.
The tension on a guitar string is at its highest at its fixed points. For that reason guitar frets tend to wear more between the 1st and 7th frets.

Fret Wear
Fret wear shows itself firstly as small flat areas just under the string. This in turn creates a potential area for string rattle. If left unchecked, these small areas soon become larger depressions and the string rattle greater. These depressions will eventually wear completely through the fret inevitably rendering that particular fret on that particular string unusable.

Fret Honing
The sensible approach to fret maintenance is to have the fret tops skimmed with a whet stone and then to have each fret reprofiled to its original shape. The action would then be adjusted accordingly, improving its playability and breathing new life back into the instrument.

Refretting
After several fret skimming procedures, the fret height will become compromised and inevitably the fret has to be replaced. This can be in the form of either a partial refret (fret 1–7) or a complete refret. This will differ in price depending on the type of fingerboard. Bound edged or lacquered fingerboards are more challenging and therefore, more time consuming and costly. More here…